The Great Machine
by Luna Myth 11
Summary: Leo isn't sure if he trusts this whole 'soul mates' business, but he isn't going to turn down a coffee date with someone as terrifying and beautiful as Calypso.


Leo considered himself to be the type of person who danced to the beat of his own flugelhorn. If fate or destiny had some great plan for him, well, he wasn't interested. He was happy doing his own thing, tinkering away in his garage, meeting the bare minimum of schoolwork required of him as a homeschooler. Sometimes he went out with his friends, sometimes he went out on his own, and most often he showed off his latest project to random people who passed by his house. Or as they called it, 'the house of that crazy Hispanic boy with the odd inventions'. His life certainly wasn't boring, not with his latest 'project' always threatening to explode or his friends dragging him off on adventures, so in his opinion, fate had no business interfering like it was. It was throwing off the tune of his flugelhorn, to be honest.

He leaned back against his work table and stared at the golden lettering on his wrist: _Calypso_. The name was written in a lovely print befitting the beauty of its owner and that only made Leo more suspicious about the whole situation. Why would Leo Valdez, out of all of his friends, be the one with a gorgeous soul mate who was totally out of his league? More than that, though, she hated his guts, and while normally Leo understood that sort of reaction, he didn't think it supported the idea of them being soul mates.

Then again, if such a thing as fate really did exist, it seemed just like it to give him a stunningly beautiful soul mate who couldn't stand the sight of him. Maybe he should give the universe a bit more credit.

Whether or not he believed it, the evidence was there, written in gold upon his left wrist, and his 'soul mate' in question had already accepted fate's decree with mild distaste. She apparently believed the tales of soul mates full-heartedly and so it seemed they were stuck with each other. Leo didn't have the nerve to turn down her offer of a coffee date anyways.

He hurried inside and washed his face and hands. He wasn't feeling bold enough to go with grease and oil stains to a coffee shop, but he refused to wear jeans. Instead he put on a clean pair of suspenders, his least soiled white shirt, and attempted to tame his hair. He wouldn't have fooled anyone had he tried to change his look, so a cleaner version of his usual getup was probably for the best.

Armed with his wallet and a few small tools, Leo set out for the coffee shop, his fingers tapping his thighs agitatedly. To those who didn't know him, it almost looked like he was listening to music. But in reality he was thinking. He was thinking about problems to fix and puzzles to solve and his hands were itching to create something. The 'problem' he was intending to find a solution for wasn't one he could fix with his hands, though. And it wasn't as much a problem as a riddle, a curiosity he needed to understand.

Why was he supposedly 'soul mates' with a random, albeit very beautiful, girl he had only met a few days ago? Why had the universe decided they were meant to be together with such finality instead of Jason and Piper, or Percy and Annabeth? Everyone thought that those couples were going to get married someday; their love and devotion was obvious. But Leo Valdez, the lower class mechanic, and the mysterious Calypso, who was rumored to live in a pent house all by herself? No one would have thought they could even be a couple in a million years, let alone the rare and fabled occurrence of soul mates.

For a moment, Leo pushed aside his doubts about destiny and soul mates and fate and an idea occurred to him. What if that was the whole point? Couples like Jason and Piper, and Percy and Annabeth were clearly as meant to be as any of the soul mate couples people watched on TV, but Calypso might not have looked at him twice without a little bit of divine intervention. And Leo would never have thought he stood a chance with her, had he been inclined in the first place. Without a nudge from the universe, the odds of them getting to know each other would have been slim to none. So if they really were soul mates, if he and Calypso were meant to fit together like two complimentary bronze gears in the great machine of the universe… then Leo supposed he could get over fate's way of interfering. Crueler than giving him a soul mate who seemed disgusted with his existence was giving him one who he would never get to know.

Only one thing for it, then, Leo decided. Time to introduce himself to Miss Sunshine- Valdez-style.

He pushed his way through the door into the café with his head held high despite his small stature and an impish grin on his face, his hands fiddling in his pockets for whatever spare bits of material he had to work with. He pulled out a few pieces of wire and started twisting them, still grinning manically.

"Hello, Calypso, did you miss me?" he said when he reached the small table she was sitting at. His voice was the winning combination of charming and infuriating he had spent so long perfecting and with his mischievous smile in place as always, not a trace of his nervousness could be seen.

Calypso's face remained impassive, but Leo still thought he had a shot at getting through to her. At least she didn't appear disgusted.

"Not particularly," she replied. "But I am glad to see you came."

It was a start, Leo thought as he slid into his seat opposite her. His hands played with the wire frantically, bending it and smoothing it almost of their own accord. Almost. He knew exactly what he was making.

"Well now, I'm happy to be here. It isn't every day that fate proclaims somebody to be my soul mate." Leo quipped. Then he added, "Also, I needed the distraction because sometimes when I get stuck on a problem, the solution just comes to me when I least expect it."

"You seem to be suddenly a lot less skeptical of the possibility of soul mates." Calypso noted. "Did you have a change of heart or was there an accident in your workshop?"

Leo laughed in surprise. Not only did she know he was a mechanic, but she was capable of some basic level bantering. There was much more to Calypso than just being cold and high-class.

"A change of heart's more accurate, but I have been known to bump my head on the underside of tables on occasion," he remarked with a smirk.

The corners of Calypso's mouth twitched, but instead she rolled her eyes.

Leo quickly continued, "But enough about boring stuff like soul mates and destiny, let's talk about something I know you're interested in: coffee. Are we going to order or what?"

"I was only waiting for you." Calypso informed him. "I'm ready to order now."

She stood up gracefully, keeping her cool and proud gaze fixed on Leo like a challenge. She picked up her purse from beside her and slipped it over her shoulder. Leo scrambled to his feet, shoving his wire project into his pocket, and Calypso rolled her eyes again.

"So what are you thinking?" Leo said energetically, bouncing on the balls of his feet as he walked with Calypso to the counter. "I'm feeling an espresso with peppermint, one of those really festive types."

"Just a latte with caramel," she answered. "Unlike you, I don't want to be bouncing off the walls and breaking things."

"Me? Breaking things?" He held a hand to his chest in mock-offense.

The tiniest flicker of amusement lit Calypso's brown eyes, making them appear for a moment to be warm and kind. Leo blinked and it was gone, but now he knew how striking she looked when she was happy and he was even more determined to make her smile.

"Okay, maybe I do break things," Leo admitted mischievously. "But how do you think I got to be so good at putting things back together?"

He could have sworn she nearly smiled at him right then and there.

The conversation stayed on the topic of mechanics, tinkering, and building for a surprising while before broadening into hobbies in general. Leo was startled to learn that Calypso was versed in a wide variety of handicrafts, (including some experience in his specialty, metal-working), but not as shocked as he was to hear that her favorite hobby was gardening. The idea didn't click with him for some reason. He tried to imagine Calypso, in her current fashionable day dress, kneeling on the ground planting a small flower and ran into another problem with the image.

"Don't you live in a penthouse, though?" Leo blurted out. It was one of the only consistent details he'd heard about the mysterious Calypso before meeting her.

The near-smiles he had managed to draw out of her faded away and she frowned.

"Yes, I do," she said stiffly. "But it has a very lovely balcony which allows me enough space to grow several types of flowers and herbs."

Even Leo Valdez knew when not to push sometimes. He didn't pursue the topic of her living arrangements any further, responding instead with a quip and a question about her favorite types of plants. Soon enough, she had opened back up again and Leo grinned at her passion about nature, along with several other topics that came up. Getting to know his soul mate was turning out to be pretty fun, which seemed to support the idea of them being soul mates in the first place.

They both finished their coffees and Leo's ever-moving hands began to take his cup apart for cardboard. He had pulled the slowly forming wire project back out of his pocket and it was now nearing completion, but Calypso hadn't genuinely smiled yet, so he was by no means ready to leave.

He had just opened his mouth to speak when Calypso's eyes caught his own. She looked happier than when he first walked in, that was for sure. And her mouth was upturned in a smirk as she scanned his face. That had to count for something, right? Leo looked at her with interest and followed her gaze to his left wrist which was just visible over the edge of their table. She was looking at her name, the soul mark that had appear the first time Leo had seen her.

Leo set the bunch of wire and cardboard down on his lap and rested his hands on the table, palm up.

"So is that your handwriting?" he asked. "It's much nicer than mine. I should probably apologize for how terribly written your soul mark must be."

Maybe it was because that was such a ridiculous and Leo sentence or maybe it was something else entirely, but Calypso appeared to like it. She smiled at him, shortly followed by a fond shake of her head, and Leo felt his ears burn red as he smiled impishly back. She had a beautiful and surprisingly gentle smile.

Calypso had finally warmed to him, it seemed, and so Leo took a chance and grabbed her left hand while explaining what he was doing. He slid back a thick golden bracelet on her wrist and the word _Leo_ peered back at him in a fiery red. It really was his handwriting, but at least it only had three letters to mess up. Calypso didn't seem to mind his handwriting, though, because she was looking at her soul mark with a grudging respect, as if maybe fate knew what it was doing after all.

This was going well for Leo and maybe because that's when things normally started to go wrong, he suddenly felt nervous. His hands flew back to the group of twisted wires and bent cardboard and Calypso raised an eyebrow at him.

"Is it just me or is this actually going well?" Leo said by way of explanation.

"Do you have a frame of reference?" Calypso questioned back.

"As a matter of fact… no. But I still think it's going pretty acceptably for a first date with a beautiful woman, who might just be my soul mate."

Calypso didn't respond immediately and Leo hurried on. "You know, this has been pretty fun. And to be honest, you're really awesome. So… could we go on a second date some time? I'll even bring flowers and stuff!"

When Leo had said he didn't have much by a frame of reference, he meant it, and as a result he wasn't quite sure if he was doing this right. But he _was_ certain that he wanted to see Calypso again and there was no time like the present to see if she felt the same way. At least, that's what he had agreed on. In reality he was nervously regretting his decision to ask for a second date right away. Didn't people normally wait till the end of their first date before asking for another?

To Leo's enormous surprise, Calypso smiled again, hesitantly.

"I think a second date is in order, Leo," she said. "But this one isn't quite finished yet. You seem to have a habit of doing things unconventionally."

Leo beamed at her, taking her last mildly pointed comment in stride. He had a second date!

His grin turned devilish. "That's me! Unconventional to the core and an on-the-fly thinker! Speaking of which, I have something for you. Hopefully you'll find it as unconventional and charming as I am."

He had finally finished his wire and cardboard creation and he pulled it out from under the table with a flamboyant flick of his wrist. It was a hand-crafted flower, with a spiraling stem, two delicate leaves, and five red petals, every part of which had been shaped by Leo's hands and clever fingers. Simple bronze wire formed the framework and the red-dyed cardboard from his coffee cup was fitted to create the surface of the petals. It was extremely skillfully made and Leo had put a lot more effort into it than he normally would have. He had smoothed out the wire frame to an absurd degree, with the end result being no kinks in the metal, and the cardboard petals seemed to be textured like real flower petals would be. It was beautiful, in an odd, almost steampunk sort of way.

"Wow…" Calypso breathed. "Did you make that just now?"

"Yup," he replied. "I've been working on it since I got here. What do you think? Not too bad, huh?"

"It's… impressive." Calypso decided. Her expression softened as she accepted the flower. "And beautiful. Thank you, Leo."

"I'm just happy you like it." Leo said, trying to hide the nervous excitement that flooded through him at the compliment. "Would have been kind of pointless if you hadn't liked it. You know?"

Calypso looked up from her flower and stared at him in amusement. Leo felt even more awkward in response and grinned at her teasingly.

They continued to talk for a while, Calypso making more of an effort to keep the conversation going than previously, and time passed quickly. Leo liked a lot of what he found out his soul mate and Calypso hadn't kicked him out of the café yet, which he took to be a good sign. It was possible that she was enjoying his company. She had agreed to a second date after all, so Leo hoped this was true.

Unfortunately, the universe that had insisted they get together was now telling him it was time to go home. People were slowly trickling out of the coffee shop and the hour was growing late. They might have moved to a different location, but both of them had agreed to take things leisurely to start with. Calypso had admitted, very reluctantly, to a few past relationships that had ended badly. Wanting this one to work out, and knowing how it felt to like someone who couldn't like you back, Leo had also thought starting small was a good idea. And besides, he had an essay for his homeschool he should have finished last week.

Leo exchanged a good-bye with Calypso and was very pleased when she put the flower in her hair. Not as pleased as he was when she gave him a good-bye kiss, though.

It was a brief press to his lips, nothing more, but the act was done with a determination and deliberateness that was more attractive to Leo than he cared to admit.

"Um, thank you." Leo stuttered.

"You're welcome," Calypso replied. "I thought it was only fair since you gave me this flower. You should have something to take away from our first date as well."

Leo nearly floated back to his house. His heart felt absurdly light.


End file.
